


High Speed Date, Slow Burning

by Lethalfurry



Series: Raz and Friends [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Furry, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 11:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3690159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lethalfurry/pseuds/Lethalfurry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having the status of class president isn't something that is very pleasant. It comes with many responsibilities and duties.<br/>And some of them just may require you to hang out with annoyingly hyper people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	High Speed Date, Slow Burning

**Author's Note:**

> I LOVE TO DIE  
> This was seriously longer than I thought, and my revision made it even fucking longer(almost exactly 1k words longer LMAO).  
> On the other hand, I also feel like I made this a lot less cliche and removed some...problematic...things which would cause Garo to bring out the wrong image(original work's still in my tumblr if you want to compare :3c)  
> I thought I'd have to rewrite/edit a lot on this, but it was actually not much! My early writing isn't as bad as I thought and I'm super glad about that.  
> Keep an eye out for a mention of another new character as you enjoy this, too!  
> EDIT: I hate the formatting in Word. Now it's totally readable!

After summer, it was already the second half of the school year for everyone, with cultural festivals, class competitions, and the like all firing up the students, with Raz and Erik's class being no exception; and that'd have been fine.

....If at the start of the year Erik hadn't been forced into the position of the class leader(Raz was technically the self-proclaimed vice-president, but no one really cared; Erik had the efficiency of a hundred Razes, anyway).

"Well, we've got most of the issues about resources tackled down, and now it leaves...the stuff for the sports competitions. I've gotten the OK from most of the sports clubs, but I still need to form a team for the relay race. Track team members?" Carefully checking a paper with all the plans he made for the class, Erik spoke, expecting the track team members to give their names for the team.

"I'm sorry, class rep, but we don't have the necessary members for a team...We do have four track members on our class, but one of them got nervous about the relay and refused to join." Said a white rabbit boy, standing up to speak, his face showing signs of having worried the last few days. Dark eyebags on white fur really stood out.

"This is bad...We'll have to get someone that isn’t from the track team to participate...Scheduling practice times will be difficult, too.” He looked down and muttered to himself, and then faced the class again. “Is anyone willing to volunteer?" Slightly chewing on his finger as he thought up all the possible problems this would give, he observed the class for any small movements that could indicate a hand-raise, so he could abduct the unwilling half-volunteer and get this over with. He didn't even want to be a class leader, anyway, so this was just about appropriate.

"Why doesn't Garo participate?" asked a frog boy as he looked at a big white dog man on the other side of the class. "You were really awesome that day when I was chasing that paper that had flown away!" He continued, with a very impressed tone, that contrasted with the white dog's general surprise, letting the pencil that he was trying to balance with his nose ever since the start of the class meeting fall to the floor.

"Eh? Ah? You called me?" Scratching the back of his head and giving a half-hearted, worried laugh, Garo decided to ask for details before he even said anything; after all, his current opinion about all that was discussed was "Man, this pencil sure is hard to balance!", and he was pretty sure if he said that about half of the class would gang up on him. Thankfully, Erik only facepalmed before continuing onto his explanation

."To shorten things up, we have to get a new member for the relay race team on the class competition, and we want you to be that member."

"Aaaaaaaand uh...what if I kinda… don't wanna do it?" Erik wanted to strangle this man. He was just one word away from finishing this damn meeting and never having to talk about this again until the day of the competition. All he had to do was say "Yes".

"We would ask you really politely to participate, because you like our class very much?" Erik wasn't even trying to hide it. That was just pure, poison-filled sarcasm. He let his eyes slide over to where Raz was standing, just to see him making stupid faces and mouth movements that probably said something like "Someone's losing his cool~".

"Hm.....sure, I'll do it!" said Garo, standing up as if he was the second coming of Jesus, what with all the people cheering and Erik sighing desperately of relief and possibly whispering "thank you God". However, that happiness was short lived.

"...on one condition!"

The class all looked as if they had just been stabbed right in the stomach by their own best friend. Erik was outright groaning as he continued. "And that condition is?"

"Hehe, I want Erik to go on a date with me tomorrow!" Saying this with a full-blown smile that may even have been endearing on other situations, Garo looked directly at Erik, waiting for his answer. The panther was still completely confused, though, and Raz wasn't even standing anymore; he almost fell to the floor and had to get help from the person sitting near where he was standing.

"T-the answer is obviously..." Erik had his eyes closed in irritation as he spoke this part, and he damned the moment he decided to open them. For he could see his classmates, some of them with the eyes of puppies, pleading for him to say yes, and some already sharpening their scissors, planning to murder him if he said no.

"....Yes. O-of course." He couldn't even believe the words escaping out of his mouth. He could hear Raz having a heart attack and finally falling to the floor, although no one except for the person near Raz noticed.

\------------------------------------

"....I STILL can't believe I'm doing this." said Raz to himself as he hid a small distance away from the mall's entrance, looking around for any signs of Garo showing up to meet Erik, who was already waiting there. Erik would probably be pissed at him if he found out he was spying on his date, but as a friend, he couldn't leave him there...!  
…Or so he reasoned to himself, although the true reason was just a careful mixture of jealousy and curiosity.

"...I wonder if this is good enough though." thought Raz as he checked out the clothes he was wearing: a completely black coat, a black shirt underneath it, black pants, black sneakers, and also a black hat, in case he needed to hide his face. The idea was to be like a ninja...and he ended up looking like a goth wannabe or a mafioso-in-training. If he stood out like this, he probably wasn't noticing it.

"Heyyyyy there, did you wait for long?" And slowly but surely, the suspect finally showed up, greeting Erik at the entrance. Both were dressed pretty much casually, but it was pretty easy to notice that Erik had overprepared himself for the date; his fur was practically glistening, his pants' pockets were obviously full, with basic things he prepared just in case, and before he was greeted by the Garo, he kept repeating all kinds of lines and simulating all types of situations nervously.

"H-hmph, not really, but you could have gotten here sooner. You're slightly late." Crossing his arms, Erik scolded him a bit, unsure of how harsh he should be; it was fine to yell at Raz since he was his best friend, but with other people...

"Haha, sorry, sorry. I was looking forward to this all night, so I barely got enough sleep! Then I ended up napping and missed my bus stop, so I had to run and...hehe, it's a long story, sorry~" He made hand motions with each part of the sentence, eventually stopping at scratching his head when he apologized. “I'll be more careful next time, promise.” He smiled a bit as he reassured the other, hoping it’d earn him his forgiveness. Fortunately for him, it didn’t seem to be particularly hard.

"L-looked forward to it all night…Next time??" Repeating it in a dazed, blushing state, Erik slowly regained himself. "Anyway, it's fine, so let's just go in already."

"Oh yeah, let's! Can we go to the movies first? There's this one that I've been wanting to see for a while now, can we see it? Pretty please?" Tugging on Erik's arm and making the situation worse for him, Garo just kept pleading to him.

"Y-you're the one who asked for me to come on this date, right? So you lead it. I'm fine with most movies, anyway." Turning his head away, he struggled to speak the words, but they managed to come out, somehow.

"Ah, that's great then~! I'll show you tons of fun, so come on! We gotta hurry so we get good seats!" Grabbing the feline by the wrist, the white dog made a dash for the cinema...as the raven just behind him struggled to keep up.

\----------------

"Ah, that'll be ------." Said the cashier, waiting for the two to hand over the money, although Erik just sadly looked at his own wallet.

"Ugh, why did this movie HAVE to be 3d...I spent most of my money on sweets, I don’t want to use up more just for a stupid effect..." He thought as he carefully counted all the small coins, but he was surprised by the cashier's voice as they accepted the money; and Garo told him to put his wallet away.

"I basically forced you to come with me today, so I'll pay for everything. Dontcha worry~" He said with a smile, making a circle with his index finger and his thumb to reassure him it was fine.  
…Even Erik had to admit that his smile was refreshing most of the time, but when he did it while offering to pay for his stuff, it was more as if a saint was smiling at him.

"Um, thank you. That's very considerate of you. I'll pay you back when I get some money..."

"Geez, I told you, right? I'm fine with paying for you! Come on, let's go~"

\----------

After the two had left to get popcorn, Raz finally got in the line to buy his ticket, although....

"WHY are there so many stupid kids here?!" He practically screamed in his own mind as all the little kids around him pointed at him, asking their parents why he wore all black, and saying he looked like a villain. He was tempted to be a villain right now and kill some kids, but he had a panther and a dog to follow around. He reprimanded himself for not thinking of bringing Kant, a younger friend of his and Erik’s, with him, considering he easily passed off for a child…but what with the extra classes and work he often had, he would’ve been most likely too busy.

Raz gave a big disappointed sigh. He heard the mother of one of the children going “That’s how people who dress like that always feel, sweetie. So, don’t dress like that, okay? Promise?” She bent down and held out her pinky finger towards her daughter, and her daughter happily nodded as they made a pinky promise. He would have almost thought it was incredibly touching if he wasn’t the source of the problem here.

\----------

After getting incredibly huge buckets of popcorn(Erik had no idea how he was going to eat all this; one of the times where he wished Raz was here, since he loved popcorn), their drinks and seating themselves, the movie started.

  
It was an all-ages action movie, so it was a bit awkward to sit near a kid, but he quickly forgot it once he saw Garo's reactions to everything that happened; which ranged from shoving lots of popcorn in his mouth, to biting his own shirt when something sad happened, to grabbing Erik's arm and pointing at the screen whenever he saw something exciting or when he thought Erik just wasn’t paying enough attention.

(Erik also had no idea what Garo’s “minimum attention” for a movie was, but he did know he had to work incredibly hard to achieve it).  
With all that, before Erik knew it, he was being loud too and telling Garo to quiet down, even though his own ears were perked up and paying attention to the movie. Unfortunately, this wasn’t something Garo noticed.

And amidst all their fun, on the line behind them was Raz, using a huge bucket of popcorn to cover himself. It was also no wonder that he was also being loud in his own way, munching down on the popcorn rather angrily, but he tried to be quieter once he saw a little kid just beside him, practically staring at his soul every time he munched on it.

\---------

And before long, the movie was over, and with quite a few losses in the process.  
Even though Erik managed to have fun, he was pretty sure he ate his fill of popcorn for the rest of his life.  
Garo was wiping his tears and clinging to Erik's arm(something Erik only noticed a little bit later, but decided not to mind) thanks to the movie.  
And Raz was pretty sure he developed a lifelong hate of quiet little kids with big eyes. He didn't care what the brat said to him, he just wanted the brat to either stop staring at him or say something. He was pretty sure he could still feel the kid staring at him even after he left.

"Hey, are you okay...?" asked Erik to the bigger dog still clinging onto him, and he quickly wiped his tears and let the panther go. "Yeah...I know! Let's go to the arcade for now!" He said, swiftly changing emotions and making sure his pace was as swift as that change.

"Does this stupid mutt ever walk normally...?!” Wondered the poor raven as he tried to keep up with the other two as they hurried.

\------

“Ah, here we are! Come on, let’s play some DDR!” With his huge smile being brought back to his face, Garo proudly escorted Erik to the machine, with Erik only staring at it in curiosity, his mind filled with questions.

“Wait, what’s this game..? Do you use your feet…?” Bobbing his head a bit to the side, Erik could only wonder what he was supposed to do, but his question just made Garo giggle.

“Heh, do you only study? Come on, I’ll show ya how to play it.” Stepping on the dancing floor, Garo started it up with some of his money.

“Hey, I play games too. I just don’t come to the arcade often.” Said Erik, pouting. In actuality, he went quite a few times accompanying Raz on the way home after school, but he often didn’t play solely to avoid spending money. His comment was ignored as Garo kept on with his explanation, though.

“First, you choose a song…and then when it starts, you match your steps to the arrows. Like this!” As the song started, Garo danced along with the arrows, matching most of them correctly. Even though he missed a few, it was pretty obvious that he was very skilled at the game; something that made Raz, who was watching from a distance while playing a shooting game, pick the toy gun and sometimes point it at Garo and pretend he was shooting him, but he stopped once he realized how much he was standing out.

“Y-you’re pretty good at that one, huh. You must come to this place pretty often…” asked Erik as he stared at Garo’s new rightful place in some of the highest score marks.

“Hehe, did I manage to impress you? Then I’m glad, because that’s why I chose it~” Once again, he smiled. Even though Erik was affected by the comment and smile, though, he was starting to get the hang of it, so he had something prepared for that.

“Then perhaps you can impress me with your grades next time.” He said, and Garo whimpered just as he expected. He actually didn’t really have knowledge of his grades, so it was just a guess, but he concluded that anyone this simpleminded couldn’t possibly have good ones. A mean stereotype, perhaps, but it served its purpose this time.

“I-It’s not like that! I mean, maybe I did once come here a bit too much, but playing alone is boring, so I try to only come with other people now!” He justified himself to Erik, but he forgot that he was speaking to the class president and also the student council president. Excuses meant nothing to the ultimate pokerface of learning.

“…C-come with me, once you dance a bit too you’ll know the magic too.” Pushing Erik to the dancefloor just beside his, Garo inserted some money on the machine just beside his and chose a song for him.

“This one is pretty easy, so it’ll be nice for ya~ You don’t have to try to keep up with me, though, hehe.” Once again, he smiled, although instead of saintly, Erik made sure to classify this one as “the dumb cocky smile that I’ll take off his face once I ruin him on this.”

“Hmph, you’ll be the one trying to keep up with me, thank you very much.” He said as the song was already starting, and ended up missing some of the arrows.

“Heh, focus on YOUR dancefloor! You look like a baby trying to dance~” Garo said while laughing, but he also missed some because of it. In the end, both got awful scores.

“Haha, not exactly the king of the dancefloor anymore now, are we?” teased Erik as he pointed at Garo’s score on the machine, but Garo, in return, pointed to Erik’s.

“Not like you’re any better! But…” Putting his hand on Erik’s head, he ruffled the fur on his head a bit. “You’re pretty okay for a beginner, aren’t you?! You still have to get on my level, though---Owowowowow, please let my hand go…” Considering how his hair-ruffling was unwelcome, Garo got his hand caught by Erik. From a distance, Raz was practically beaming that Erik took a stand against the bigger dog…

“I-it’s your fault for doing stuff without being told to, stupid.” Said Erik, as he pouted and tried to fix his head’s fur a bit; but Garo’s response was just a giggle.

“Hehe, you finally used an insult on me. I thought we’d never get to that level! You’re always so stiff when in class, it’s nice to see you being a bit more relaxed.” If Erik was completely relaxed, that comment had just sent him back to stage 1 of anxiety again, which caused him to turn away. “Who do you think you are, trying to read me…! I’ll get r-revenge for that! Come on, one more try!”

….And then Raz’s happiness was short-lived, as they both got back together pretty quickly, playing more rounds of DDR against the other. “I guess it’s fine if Erik is smiling that much while playing with him, but…” He knew what he wanted to complete that sentence with. I’m jealous. But he couldn’t bring himself to even think about it right now.

\---

And after they spent more than an hour just repeating rounds over and over(Erik was very fired up in regards to winning, something that Garo ended up loving quite a lot), Garo’s stomach practically caused an earthquake as it rumbled. And in response, Erik’s stomach practically made the equivalent of a cute meow, in comparison to the other’s roar.

“Hahaha, damn, that wore me out. What about you?” asked the white dog as they both stopped to take a breather, after that huge rumbling.

“I could…go on…for…an entire…day…” said Erik, stopping and taking a deep breath after practically puking out that sentence from inside him.

“Heh, your body says otherwise. Don’t try to look stro—wait, better not to.” He almost put his hand on the other’s head to ruffle his fur, but after the awful experience just an hour ago, he decided not to.

“Haha, good one. I see you’ve at least learned new tricks, huh?” said Erik, with a smug face that practically denoted victory. “But heh, I guess I am kinda tired now. I didn’t think I’d be hungry ever again after you made me eat that huge bucket of popcorn…”

“Oh, so it WAS too big for you….I did think it was kinda awkward that you were making weird faces after you ate for a while, but if you didn’t want it you could have given me it~” Whined the white dog, as he puffed his cheeks and talked like a small kid.

“What, you mean you still had space for more of that?!” Said Erik, gasping out of surprise.

“Of course, I’m still growing!” Said the dog, proudly puffing his chest…

“If you keep growing you’ll be the size of a building in no time, you know.” He said as a cold retort, but after a while, he put his hand to his chin in thought and smirked.

“Actually, keep that up. You should get as big as a building and crush everyone on the relay race.” At that moment, Garo was pretty sure that their class had not a president, but yes, a tyrant. His preoccupation with that disappeared as soon as he realized it meant more food for him, though.

“Anyway, let’s go eat for now.” Said the panther, being the first to stand up and start walking. “I thought you wanted me to lead~ Are you gonna pay for me, too?” With that, Erik concluded that Garo wasn’t a saint, he was just a devil pretending to be one. “Ugh…I’ll let you handle that.”

And behind them, Raz only watched and followed, now with lowering enthusiasm and excitement.

\---

“So, what are you gonna ha—?” When he was just about to ask Erik what he was planning on eating, he saw him going on and on about the announcement on the front of the store.

“So they finally released that deluxe ultra dessert…! It’s a mix of all kinds of chocolates mixed with the other types of sugary and also fruity sweets, I wanna—“ As he was about to finish that, though, his eyes slid down to the price tag and he quickly forgot what he was even going to say. “…Nevermind. I uh, I think I’ll have the cheapest one.” The price exceeded what Erik had in his wallet by way too much, and even if Garo had the money to pay for it, he didn’t want to burden someone else with his desires. He tried his best not to let the disappointment show on his face, but it was futile.

“Hey, it’s fine if you wanna try it! I’ll….pay for it…um.” He also took a look at the price tag, and slowly lost enthusiasm. “S-sorry…I think it’s way out of my league…No, wait!” He pointed at the other announcement in smaller words on the store sign. “If you manage to eat one of each sweet of the menu under five minutes, the store pays for everything. We could try it out!”

“Er, it’s fine…I’ll try it when I have enough money to pay for it, and I’m a pretty slow eater too.” Scratching the back of his head and looking away a bit, Erik tried to ignore the kindness the other kept offering.

“Well, it’s just the first time I see you excited about something, so I wanna keep going! Come on, I’ll help you out! I’m a pretty fast eater and I eat a lot, remember?” Grabbing him by the wrist, he took Erik to the counter to sign up for the challenge, and sure enough, with a smug “I doubt you can really do this, heh” smile, the waiter issued a warning for all the others to serve all sweets to them and let them have at it.

One of the waiters held a chronometer in his hand, watching in disbelief as Garo put an entire slice of cake inside his mouth and practically swallowed it without chewing. If he did chew, it must have been so fast the human eye couldn’t have even caught it.

And he kept on with each of the sweets on the table, Erik trying his best to eat them with a fork, not knowing that from a certain distance, on a different store away from him, Raz was cheering him on. Of course, while having to deal with eating spicy tacos, considering that was the only restaurant near the other two.

And sure enough, they finished eating after a while…and the chronometer marked around 7-8 minutes, with them not being able to finish on time after all.

“Sorry…it’s my fault that I even suggested it to you in the first place. I can stay behind here to try to pay it off with work, so don’t worry about the money.” Erik said as he enjoyed the sweet he longed for, but even then, he ate it without much care or interest, as he looked down.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! It’ll be faster if I help you out here with work too. I insisted on it after all. I’m sorry.” Garo once again bowed down and apologized just like the first time back at the entrance, but now it practically lacked enthusiasm.

“If I may interrupt…actually, your bill has already been accounted for. A gentleman wearing black came here and paid for all your expenses.” Said the waiter as he took away the dishes that were on the table.

“Someone paid for it? But…who?” Erik questioned. He wasn’t exactly popular, much less popular enough that people would actively pay for him randomly like this. Maybe someone from the school decided to contribute, since he was going on this date out of duty…?

“Wahh, we’re in luck~ I wonder why, though. Did the person give a name?” The white dog asked, but the reply was just a simple shake of the head by the waiter. Some distance away from them, a poor raven looked down at his practically completely empty wallet and smiled for a bit, pleased with himself.

\---

They made their way to the bus stop outside the mall, with the night sky and the few streetlights illuminating the area. It was practically empty now considering how late it was, except for a few other people far away.

“Ah~ Today was really fun, you know. I’m pretty sure I’ll be pooping blocks of sugar for some time, but it was really great.” With his characteristic hearty smile once again, Garo laughed a bit, quietly.

“Well…I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Although, I’m happy that, you know…uh…that I got to keep you company today. You said coming here alone wasn’t so fun, so…” Even forgetting the usual blushing, Erik said it pretty calmly and honestly.

“Haha, did you think that was the reason I made you come here with me?”

“Well….yeah.”

“If I wanted to, I’d just ask anyone to come here with me. Honestly, I was planning on helping out the class anyway if you guys asked me to, but I wanted you to enjoy stuff for a bit.” He scratched the back of his head as Erik looked at him in confusion.

“I see most of the people in class smiling and having fun with their own group of friends, and that’s fine. We’re all like that. But you…whenever I see you, you’re always very stiff. Every time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile for real.” He explained himself.

…Yes, that was true. The classic scene of “a person with a position of power acting like this so they can conduct their job effectively” was something that fit him greatly. After all, he really just wanted to fulfill a role. So, following a script was exactly what he did.

In most cases, this was a conflict. The people in power were burdened by this, and they couldn’t form connections with the ones they were in charge of. He also understood this, and was fine with it. After all…he had him. So this kind of thing was unnecessary. He wouldn’t need to change, but he also did not expect anything from the other side.

After all, it was the burden of whoever played the role of King to reach out to people. To change and lose their “easy” role in maintaining the kingdom in exchange of connections and bonds.

…Not even a single one of the citizens had considered a visit to the castle.

“…I wanted to see you smile, hehe. Or rather, I had to.”

So, why was one of them entering right now? Pushing the incredibly huge double doors…

“You look--”

Following the red carpet’s path, climbing up the golden stairs, pushing yet another set of double doors…

“—really cute when you do.”

Running into the room like it was a marathon and practically throwing themselves onto the King’s lap, both of them falling out from the throne. The poor king couldn’t even move. Maybe it was shock that something like this had happened, or perhaps he was still dizzy from the fall.

“I mean, you gotta enjoy your youth!” Finishing it off with a small joke, Garo laughed as he scratched his cheeks. But Erik practically couldn’t reply anymore, now that he was basically hiding his face away from him.

“I-I’m not like...that…” was all he could muster to say, and it was barely even heard as a bus approached.

“Well…” The big dog approached the panther, and hugged him, pulling him close to his chest. “For now, I just really wanted to be your friend, see what kind of person you really are…that kinda thing. And I was really pleasantly surprised.” He held the other even more tightly, practically squeezing him at this point.

“So, I’m glad!” He finally pulled away from Erik. “That our class president is this kind of person. I’m sure your job is probably kind of annoying and lonely, but…” He started getting onto the bus, paying the fare already.

“I’ll run as much as you want, be it on the relay or to come here to hang out with you, so hang in there!” He finally got in it, and considering there wasn’t anyone else on the bus stop, the bus driver definitely didn’t hesitate on driving right away. All Erik could do was weakly wave his hand for Garo, who was outside the bus’ window, smiling at him.

For a bit, Erik kind of just stood there without doing anything, just slowly processing whatever had been said to him just now. And then after that period of meditation was done, he proceeded to slap himself on the cheeks multiple times to get a grip and stop blushing, but with the marks he left on his own face, it still looked like he was blushing. An eternal curse from a stupid dog.

And behind a streetlight Raz watched, practically holding his hands in a fist. But then, that hand went to his chest, and he took a deep breath.

“I don’t know what it was, but if he’s happy…..but even then, me too…I want to, too…”

He muttered that to himself, almost like a prayer or a promise. He wasn’t saying it to anybody, and it wasn’t even structured correctly.

But disregarding all that, Erik’s bus arrived. And then Raz noticed….that since they lived in the same neighborhood, they took the same bus…

And as he watched in disbelief, Erik got on the bus….

And the bus...went…away…

….

“I’ll have to walk home?!”

And the punishment for sneaking on people was given to the raven, as he started making his way back home on foot, whining and muttering about “stupid dogs”, “stupid sweets” and “stupid friends”.


End file.
